That is what it is called by the members and ex-members of the household – no question of it being a model railway or a railway layout.. but that is fine by me.

Firstly, as you can probably tell, it is not a layout based on any particular place or time, rather it is designed to amuse and please me, and to contain some of the sort of feature that are encountered on a full size railway. So it has bridges, tunnels, stations, signals and many of the other items that are the essentials of a railway. It has its origins nearly 40 years ago when we moved into our current house here in Hucclecote, though there has been little activity in more recent years. The cost of even a couple of lineside huts these days makes me turn pale.

Location-wise the layout may well be in the West Country somewhere – Gloucestershire perhaps – judging by the station names. Similar feeble attempts at humour are reflected in the names of the signal boxes and some of the businesses featured.

I am not a skilled modeller, so proprietary is the order of the day when it comes to this railway. When I first put the layout together I did though spend time ‘improving’ or ‘updating’ things. Depending on how well the photos come out, and how well you can see the details you will see for instance that I added Flushglaze windows to many of the coaches, and to the parcels vans which appear on one of the photos. And if you can make the liveries and numbers out you will see that I relivered a Hornby M7 as a Caledonian tank, and a Hornby Polly tank as 77C a Southern region departmental loco.

I like to think that some of the signal boxes are a bit different – though I am not quite sure how a signalman would have gained access to some of them. I like signal boxes!

I also like long trains – you cannot really do this with passenger trains, but 15 goods trucks or tanker wagons may a realistic trainload. If you can see the lines of trucks in the ‘sidings’ on the lower level then you will know that I do try to make this a reality.

Many of the road vehicles are Matchbox models from the time ‘when I was a lad’. I know that many of them are oversized for 00 guage, but they are good models and to my mind they do fit in well and look the part. Newspaper vans, dumper trucks and builders trucks – they all suit me. In the same way, some of the old Hornby Dublo range – Pullman cars for example - feel right – even if they aren’t as detailed as the latest Bachmann range. The Airfix range including the engine shed and the station canopies also feature in different places.

The Bachmann shunter’s truck has a Gloucester allocation banner on it – so that at least is at home.

And a camping coach and Pullman restaurant for good measure.